No More Cranky Kids at Walt Disney World

No More Cranky Kids at Walt Disney World

(ORLANDO, FL – February 25, 2013) – Of course you can have a “magical day” at Walt Disney World. But when waiting in line for rides, especially with kids, people tend to forget that.

Disney designers (or Imagineers, as Disney calls them) have gone to a lot of trouble to make its lines interesting by packing the queue areas with delightful visual details. Trouble is, most kids and adults are so hyped for the rides that they miss the eye-catching magic on the way to them.

“The rides are scripted; you know just where to look and you love every moment of them,” says mega-Disney fan Meredith Pierce, author of Lots To Do In Line: Walt Disney World. “In contrast, the lines are like an activity book with no instructions. They are packed with wonderful details, but kids especially need some direction to focus on them.”

Pierce’s interest in solving this problem was sparked watching her seven-year-old daughter morph from happy-excited kid to bored-whiney kid every time she stepped off a ride and into another line at Disneyland in California. Says Pierce, “She hung from the railing, spun in a circle, hopped, fidgeted, wanted a drink, wanted a snack — all the while inching ever closer to fun. As soon as we hit the ride, happy-excited kid was back.”

And so, Lots To Do In Line: Disneyland was born — a step-by-step guide that turned every ride line in the two Disneyland theme parks into a series of games. That book, now in it’s second edition, proved so popular that Pierce decided to head east and share her new-found knowledge of line-ology with Walt Disney World’s millions of visitors.

Like its predecessor, Lots To Do In Line: Walt Disney World uses only the visuals Disney and other guests provide to pose challenging questions and visual and audio treasure hunts that keep kids and their grown-ups happily immersed in the Disney magic as they move toward the ride.

The book covers all four parks at Walt Disney World Resort — Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom — and includes the latest rides in “New” Fantasyland.

“The Imagineers have added some very clever interactive elements to some lines,” Pierce notes. “But those elements occupy only a small sliver of the time most families will spend in line. And if that’s all you focus on, your kids will miss so much of the other magic that’s just waiting to be discovered if you know where to look.”

Readers of the first book agree. Disney historian Sam Gennawey called it “the perfect book to prevent meltdowns when you’re with a group of people on a relatively busy day.” For Natalie Henley of MeetTheMagic.com, Pierce’s approach is all about “experiencing the lines… rather than enduring them.”

To add to the fun, players earn one point for every correct answer they pick (they’re multiple choice) and a point for every treasure they spot, which is why many families get a copy for every member of their group.

Pierce tested the games on her family and the families of many friends. They worked, she says; “When you’re busy having fun, you can’t be bored.” Or unhappy. “Smiling kids make happy parents.”